I hope some of those Negroes don't get upset, but the U.S. Census Bureau is finally bidding farewell to the term “Negro” on its surveys and forms.The word or term has been outdated for some time now, in fact many younger people are vaguely familiar with it and many folks of my generation view the word as even offensive. Many of your more politically aware Afrikan American use the term to almost mean "Uncle Tom." The U.S. Census Bureau will reduce the options to “Black” or “African-American” starting next year. The new language will be included in its annual American Community Survey, which reaches upwards of 3.5 million U.S. households.The word Negro dates back five centuries to when the Portuguese/Spanish adjective, negro, meaning black, referring to the skin complexion of the West Afrikans they encountered, some how became transliterated or translated becoming a noun, and thus the Negro was created. Although the first U.S. census, which was taken in 1790, only had three different categories of people-- “free White,” “all other free persons” and “slaves,” and the term “Negro” wouldn't officially appear on the census until, 1900, the term had been used much earlier in the U.S. as well as in other Western nations. The Afrikan population in the U.S. nevertheless, has used a variety of nomenclatures to describe themselves, beginning with Afrikan, moving to Colored, then to Negro, and in the early 80's returning to Afrika, i.e., Afrikan American. Yet, earlier during the 1920's to use the term Negro was considered radical or progressive as it replaced the term colored. Remember that the most powerful "Black" organization was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). But it was the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement under the leadership of the Afrikan Dominican Carlos Cook, that organized a conference in 1959 that first established when referring to our color, black was the appropriate term, and when referring to our race, Afrikan was the apropos word. In addition to Cook, the Barbadian radical Richard B. Moore also argued for the term Afrikan American in his book, The Name Negro: Its Origin and Evil Use. One of the points Dr. John Henrik Clarke use to make is a people are identified by land, history and culture. I use to tell my students that an Italian American can go to a map and find a land called Italy, and that an Irish American can do the same. They can locate Europe on a map but can a Black or a Negro find a place called "Blacklandia" or "Negroland"? It only makes sense then that if a Black person or a supposed Negro came from Afrika, then they must in fact be Afrikans, just as a person from European is a European.The government did give consideration to changing the term Negro in the 2010 census but decided against it arguing that there was still a segment of the U.S. population that personally identified with the term, especially older Blacks living in the South. But according to Nicholas Jones, chief of the bureau’s racial statistics branch, the census research, using public feedback, has now confirmed that most Black Americans no longer identify with the term and find it “offensive.” I say to that, "It's about damn time"!!! Now that the Negro is gone in terms of the census lets kill him politically and culturally as well. Long live the Afrikan!

Although the World Bank's mission is to alleviate world poverty, its racist and paternalistic attitude toward Afrika, has excluded input and direction from Afrikans concerning their needs. A group called Justice for Blacks has started a petition (on change.org) asking Human Rights Watch to investigate the bank’s human rights violations. The petition, entitled “End Racial Discrimination at the World Bank” has been signed by more than 1,500 people, but many more are needed. The petition documents some of the bank’s woeful practices regarding black people at its Washington, DC-based headquarters, where it employs more than 10,000 staff and consultants. For example, a 2008 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Project (GAP) found that only four Afrikan Americans held professional positions out of more than 1,000 U.S. nationals. This figure represents a significant proportional decline even from the abysmal levels reported thirty years ago. The prejudice in hiring practices is simply a reflection in the decision-making of the World Bank.

According to an article by former World Bank officer Phyllis Muhammad on allafrica.com, the voting rights of three of the founding members of the bank—the U.S., China, and Ethiopia—tell the story. In 2007, the U.S. held 16 percent of the voting rights, China controlled 2.77 percent and Ethiopia accounted for a miniscule 0.08 percent. Even with a population of 77 million, Ethiopia carried less voting power than the Bahamas Islands, with a population 330,000. And Nigeria, with a population 150 million, held less voting rights than Kuwait, whose population is 2.5 million. Overall, sub Saharan Afrika, home for 30 percent of the world’s poor, was allotted 5.55 percent voting rights. The bank attempted to improve this in 2010, by approving a modest shift in voting rights in favor of developing countries. As a result, Latin America and China saw their voting rights increased a bit—China went from 2.77 to 4.42 percent. But Africa saw virtually no change—of the 47 countries in sub Saharan Afrika, Sudan was the only one that gained.The lack of Afrika people in the bank’s decision-making ranks is surely a big part of the problem. While Afrika accounted for 50 percent of the Bank’s International Development Assistance (IDA) disbursements for poverty alleviation in 2010, people of Afrikan origin represented just 2.5 percent of the professional staff in the Development Economics (DEC) vice presidency, where the Bank’s poverty alleviation policies are shaped. And if change is going to come, it likely will come from outside pressure because the racist culture inside is too ingrained. In 1997, a former director of the World Bank’s Loan Department explained why he was not recruiting black professionals: “Blacks make poor accountants and the department could not hire too many blacks as the department would look like a ghetto.” He suggested blacks should be kept in “the ghetto of the Bank,” a reference to the Bank’s Africa region. In fact, the bigotry inside World Bank headquarters is so pervasive that a street adjacent to the World Bank’s HQs is nicknamed “Apartheid Avenue.” This past March 2012, when a group of former and current World Bank staff petitioned the World Bank Board of Directors to intervene, a member of the Board of Directors, after reading the documents submitted by the group proving the racist practices, wrote back to them: “Thank you for bringing this very disturbing and saddening matter to our attention. … [However] I am not in a position to provide you with a reasonable feedback… With kind regard and the Almighty’s guidance always.” Muhammad,s article continues, that the Bank has been so focused on trying to improve its woeful gender inequity that it continues to promote white women over blacks. “Would the World Bank have tolerated such naked discrimination for so long had the victims been any other group?” Muhammad asks. “The answer is made obvious by its sustained actions to end gender discrimination. Racial discrimination continues unabated because the victims are black.” The group Justice for Blacks wrote in its change.org petition that, “Allowing systemic injustice to stand without accountability and correction would amount to endorsing human rights violations,” “The Bank should not be treated as ‘too big to be held accountable’ and blacks should not be treated as ‘too little to count.’”

The man accused of hitting a toddler on a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta no longer has a job. Al Haase, president and CEO of AGC Aerospace and Defense, Composites Group, said Joe Rickey Hundley was not with the company as of Sunday, according to the Associated Press. The AP reported Haase called the alleged behavior of the former company executive during a personal trip "disturbing." Hundley, 60, of Hayden, ID, was charged with simple assault of 19-month-old Jonah Bennett after the Feb. 8 flight. The todler's is black; his adopted parents are white. The boy's mother, 33-year-old Jessica Bennett, said Hundley smelled of alcohol and "told her to shut that (N-word) baby up," court records showed. She told KARE Hundley made another racial slur and slapped the todler, scratching him below his right eye. She credited other passengers with coming to her aid and giving them another seat on the plane. Hundley's employer initially suspended him after hearing of the alleged incident. A company spokesman would not say whether he resigned or was fired, only that the allegations were contradictory to the company's values. Hundley's attorney said he plans to plead not guilty and asked the public not to rush to judgment, according to CNN.

Hundley, the "Slapper"

I grew up in a time when elder members of the community could discipline the younger ones. Though all my family members know that this is how we grew up, some of us saw the virtues in it, others did not. My brother and I valued it and so he has disciplined my children and I his. But there are a couple of rules we follow: 1-Usually if the parent is present, then the parent is left to do the disciplining. 2-The disciplining is out of love and corrective, usually addressing the violation of a familial or social value. 3-The disciplining party is sober and acting on principle. 4-The disciplining party is viewed as a member of our family or tight-knit community and not a total stranger, especially if the discipline is corporal. 5-The punishment must suit the crime. I understand times have changed, unfortunately the need for disciplining children remains a cultural necessity. It is part of the human becoming. But in the above story none of the aforementioned elements of disciplining loved ones is applicable. 1-A parent was present and handling the situation. 2-The disciplining party acted out of frustration—his peace was being disturbed. 3-The disciplining party was inebriated. 4-The disciplining party was a total stranger. 5-Slapping a toddler in the face for crying is inappropriate and unacceptable. Toddlers cry. An additional things make this incident especially heinous: The repeated racial slurs. What should have happened was the child's adopted mother should have opened up a large can of whip-ass with the attitude, “How dare you put your hands on my son” and “How dare you hurl racial insults at my child!”Should Mr Hundley have been fired, I don't know? If there are legal grounds for it then he should have been. If he violated company policy, sure. In a litigious society like America, he might be able to beat the case. But he broke the law and should definitely see some jail time for assault, a hate-crime, and a few other charges. A year is not long enough.And he should have got that can he deserved and I'm not talking about a beer. Apparently he already had some of those cans and they helped, along with his racism, to get him into this mess.

Obama said that these types of people cling to their alcohol and guns. He forgot to mention their racism. It's a good thing this time he only had his racism and alcohol. Who knows what he might have done if he had his gun too.

As a teacher I often wondered why the Harlem Renaissance unlike the European Renaissance lacked a scientific component. The European Renaissance was a period of tremendous production in the fields of art, science, and literature. As a matter of fact, the European Renaissance would be considered a golden age, and all such ages are marked by achievements in those three areas. But not the Harlem Renaissance, which was an explosion in just art and literature. Something seemed stereotypically racist about this. I was also aware of the numerous inventions and discovery made by Afrikan American and wondered why they were not connected to the Harlem Renaissance creating an “authentic” Renaissance. In order for that to happen, the geographic designation of the Renaissance has to be broadened. The European Renaissance involved a much larger geography so why shouldn't the Harlem Renaissance? The European Renaissance lasted nearly 300 years, the Harlem Renaissance less than 10. Is this a joke? The truth be told, the Harlem Renaissance is a white invention. Why? Because they created the market, and provided the clientele. It was part of a new fad called "slumming," which was when wealthy whites visited exotic, formerly forbidden enclaves to "let their hair down." But more importantly, it was a white creation because it was not new. As Hubert Harrison noted in 1927, in the Pittsburgh Courier, that those clamoring about the literary contributions of the Harlem Renaissance are overlooking the stream of literary and artistic products which had flowed uninterruptedly from Black writers from 1850 to the present. The difference was Afrikan Americans had already been celebrating and enjoying their own artistic splendor; white just hadn't "discovered" it yet. (And when they undiscovered it, the Harlem Renaissance ended.) I would also add that this same period saw the flowering of the Afrikan genius in general. It was the genie let out of the bottle, freed to express itself in American society: thus—the tremendous production of inventions and discoveries by Afrikan Americans. I suggest that rather than narrow our achievement to a ten year period in a particular section of a city, we should widen our geography and scope, remembering to be inclusive of all our post-freedom expressions, including the scientific ones. If we must have a Renaissance, now that's a Renaissance—An Afrikan Renaissance in American.

A report into the United Kingdom’s race relations says violent attacks on ethnicity minorities are occurring in new parts of the country and that racism remains a societal problem. The study cites the swift changes of globalisation and ethnic minority relocation to non-diverse communities, in conjunction with the coalition government’s austerity measures, as factors that have led to this trend. The report, calledRacial violence: facing reality, was commissioned by the London-based Institute of Race Relations (IRR), which was founded as an independent charity in 1958. It found more than 37,000 crimes of a racially or religiously aggravated nature were recorded between 2011 and 2012 – equating to over 100 per day. The research’s author, Jon Burnett, said: “The myth is that post-Stephen Lawrence, racial violence has been magically dealt with. A few mechanical changes cannot deal with what is a huge trend tied to national political and economic forces.” Burnett’s report found that since Lawrence’s murder in 1993 105 people have been killed in racist attacks – an average of five deaths annually. The report criticises the current guidelines directing the justice system, and Burnett said prosecutions are preferentially brought against clear-cut cases of violent racism, which may not necessarily be the most grave. “The legislation is allowing the criminal justice system to target a few perpetrators – and often they are not the most serious offenders, but just the easiest to successfully convict. “This is putting the cart before the horse. Violence does not, by and large, spring ready-made from people’s evil thoughts, but from the larger conditions – and these are not being addressed,” the author said. “There is an urgent need for government – nationally and locally – to consider the implications of austerity measures, industrial and services closures, the enforced moving of populations and cuts in welfare to social issues such as racial violence. “In the twenty years since Stephen Lawrence’s killing, we have seen over one hundred deaths from racial violence in the United Kingdom. That is a terrible indictment,” he added. Among the report’s six key recommendations are that local authorities and their national counterparts should better communicate to more effectively understand the geographical and demographic changes that affect race relations. Also, the study urges a redefinition of the language used to classify racially motivated attacks, moving away from the term “hate crime” – which tends to focus on “individual pathology of offenders” – and instead concentrating on “conditions for violent racism are being reproduced.”

Francis Arinze of Nigeria (left) and Peter Turkson of Ghana (right) are in line to be the next pope

Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana and Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria are in the running to become what many believe will be the first ever Black pope. Of course this is not true. There have been at least three Afrikan popes and many of the early church fathers were Afrikan. When church power emanated from Alexandria, Egypt, most of the early church fathers were Afrikan, but once papal power began to shift to Rome, and the church gain more political power, conjoining with Roman imperial power, Afrikans have lost prominence. Nevertheless, there has been three Black popes: St. Victor I (189-199), St. Melchiades (311-314), and St. Gelasius (492-496). (These three are acknowledged by the Catholic church.)

In terms of church fathers all of the following were native Afrikans: Basilides, Valentinus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Athanasius, Arius, and Augustine, and there were others but these are the most prominent.

But having a Black pope is like having a Black president (of the U.S.). Despite their racial background they are symbols and agents of the institutions they represent, and these institutions represent white power. Having a Black pope won't address the historical genocides and misdeeds of the church. Having a Black pope won't stop the church from imposing European cultural assumptions and values upon other people. And having a Black pope won't address the Hellenized image of the Christ, which has no basis in history. This institution (the Roman Catholic church), like the U.S. presidency, is a member of “Club White Supremacy.” The doctrines, histories, and bureaucracies of these institutions will dictate the overall direction the offices' occupant takes, despite his or her ethnicity or racial background—and the institution will either accepted or rejected their individual program—always making sure that at least the status quo is maintained, and at best the goals of the institution are expanded.

In my book Distorted Truths, I make the point that when we adopted the distorted worldview of others, we act like them; even worst because it is so alien to us. In Kemet, where for centuries we lived in a peaceful ordered existence, successive non-Afrikan interlopers disturbed our peace and imposed their views and values on us.

For example, we see the Kemeyu (Egyptians) adding to the Declaration of Virtues that, one had not committed sodomy or pederasty, when in earlier times, this was not a practice, thus not a concern and therefore was not mentioned as a virtue. It is believed that the introduction of pederasty first entered Kemet via the Semitic Hyksos. We see Kemetic eroticism becoming more graphic and in their art penis sizes enlarge and more pictures of sexual encounters are produced post-Hyksos. Later under Greek influence, we witness the misogyny and sexual disorientation that is characteristic of European culture, manifested among Hellenized Afrikans, especially in the cases of two early church fathers, Tertullian and Origen. Tertullian became an avid misogynist, abandoning his marriage and becoming a celibate. He later disapproved of any meaningful role for women [in Christianity] and was one of their harshest critics. Greek thought had an even more debilitating influence on Origen. He became an extremist who practiced long periods of fasting, sleep deprivation, and self-mutilation, which according to the Church father Eusebius ultimately ended with Origen following Matthew’s 19:12 suggestion of self-castration. He was clearly out of touch with his Kemetic customs and values. These two dissociated individuals show the alienation and psychical imbalance that results when one lives according to the excesses of an alienating worldview.

Fast forward to contemporary times, and we see the devastating influence of Western culture on the people of South Africa. Rape, something that has historically been anathema to Afrikan culture, has become routine in that nation. South Africa, with more than 64,500 reported cases in 2011/2012, has the highest number of rapes per head of population of any Interpol member country. And unfortunately, even when suspects are caught, only 12% of cases end in conviction. Sadly, sex crimes are so common that they rarely receive the corrective attention they warrant. Recently, hundreds of grieving South Africans attended the funeral of a 17-year-old girl whose brutal gang-rape and murder stirred significant outrage. The case of Anene Booysen, who was mutilated and left to die in a small town in the Western Cape, was very reminiscent of a similar incident that occurred in New Delhi last year. President Jacob Zuma expressed shock and outrage, calling for the harshest possible sentences for the evil-doers. (South African media on Saturday, reported that police have arrested a Johannesburg pastor for luring a woman into his church and raping her.) The African National Congress' Women's League is trying to mobilize the public to act, organizing protests and other activities.

Where has this hatred and mistreatment of Afrikan women come from? Surely not from the customs of Afrikan people. Was rape common in the Zulu empire? Certainly not. Zululand was a land without crime, where women and children were valued and protected. Was it part of Xhosa, Ndebele, Swazi, Tsonga or Venda customs? I think not!! Then where does it come from? Rape of both men and woman has always been a part of the Semitic and European cultures. Check out the history--it's there. But when a great and mighty people adopt the ways of their conquerors, what can one expect? And I'm not just talking about South Afrika, the entire world of Global Afrikan People is lost, stolen, or strayed. Our present world situation looks quite paradoxical. We have withstood enslavement and colonialism only to now in “freedom” reach a point where our demise is conceivable, by both the hands of our enemies and ourselves. Or have we become our worst enemy?

I often speak of our amazing history, of our genius and greatness. But those things mean nothing if we cannot live then again--now, today! We have been down spiraling since the 15th century. When will it stop? Only when we stop it! We need an agenda, one that will consciously plan our future, establishing benchmarks that will concretely measure our ascension. Our agenda must accomplish several goals, paramount among them our survival as a racial group, the control of our collective destiny, and the imaging of ourselves as competitive on the world stage, bringing something new into a world in need of something new. What a testament to our heroism and historic greatness that would be! I'm not one for Afrikan Gloriana, are you? So let's get to work.

Apparently, a fired black LAPD officer named Christopher Jordan Dorner wants revenge and his named cleared for pass Police Department injustices. He wrote an 11,000 word Manifesto explaining his rationale. He says he will kill his way through the LAPD until he reclaims his name and identity. "This is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name," he wrote. He warned, "The Violence of action will be HIGH. I am the reason TAC alert was established. I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty ... You will now live the life of prey." There is a manhunt for Chris Dorner, 33, of La Palma, who is wanted in the killings of Cal State Fullerton assistant basketball coach Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence, her fiance. Quan is the daughter of former police captain Randal Quan, who represented Dorner in his departmental hearing that resulted in him being fired from the LAPD in 2008. Police said Dorner exchanged gunfire with police officers in Corona around 1 a.m. Thursday, grazing the head of one of them. About a half hour later, he ambushed two Riverside officers, killing one, police said. Experts who examined his manifesto said Dorner expresses a range of emotions, from outrage over racism he experienced as a first-grader to a violent incident as a rookie police officer, to his anguish witnessing a fellow cop beating a mentally ill man. However, I too have read the letter, and Dorner is feed-up with racism and the various injustices it has engendered in American society. This is his last stand, his statement. Brian Levin, a professor of criminal justice at Cal State San Bernardino and a former LAPD officer said, "It's not about him being against law enforcement. We're talking about someone who basically perceives that a tremendous injustice has been done to him that took his life and his identity. Now he's at war." It is believed that his dismissal as commanding officer of a Naval Security Forces reserve unit this month, unleashed frustration from years of feeling disrespected. As a result, he wants to "eradicate the symbols of injustice," Levin said. Levin and others experts believe Dorner is not only a risk to police, but others, because he justifies the killings. However, after reading the letter, it seems Dorner is clear in who he will take revenge upon. His manifesto is not some irrational document of blind revenge but a pointed one with specific grievances, and specific targets.

Was Dorner inspired by Django Unchained and decide to make the lead character more tangible. It is not my intention to make light of the situation, but clearly Dorner is reacting to the pressures and conditions of living in a racist society; a place where people of color are disrespected, and discriminated against everyday. His extreme reaction is the exception rather than the rule. Diane Vines, a professor of nursing at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles who specializes in post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans and civilians, said, "It's almost a duty in his mind to make these things right, for the sake of other people, not just his own sake," Vines said. "It's a calling that he's taken on." "We know PTSD sufferers have unexplained anger," Vines said.

Ansar Dine are acting in accord with the Arab-Afrikan historical script

Ansar Dine insurgents/expansionists

The invaders of Afrika are up to it again, both Semites and Europeans. Before the European (Greek and Roman) invasion of Afrika, Western Asian (Semitic) imperialists, the likes of the Hyksos, Assyrians, and Persians had invaded the continent. After the fall of Rome, they returned, this time as Arab expansionists under the banner of Islam. And this time penetration of the continent would be deeper and its ramifications more damaging. The Arabs introduced the slave trade and color prejudice into the continent.

From the documents the Arab invaders left, we learn of a West Afrika complex of high cultures, arguably a complex that outflanked any in the world, especially those of Europe. From various Muslim writers we are informed of the great wealth and key role these societies played in the trans-Saharan international trade. These writers left accounts of West Afrikan high cultures that are remarkably consistent with accounts left by ancient writers of earlier Northeast Afrikan high cultures. For example, Diodorus Siculus and Stephanus of Byzantium have credited Ta-Seti or Ethiopia (a term coined by the Greeks) as the mother civilization of the Kemeyu (Egyptians). These writers were in accord that the Ethiopians were the most just of men, suggesting a people/society in which moral excellence was one of the highest virtues. Ta-Seti’s progeny, Kemet, provided a wealth of information regarding its high culture. Their wisdom tradition suggested the people lived and maintained a very high ethical code—Maat.

Similarly, Islamic accounts of West Afrikan kings, especially the Maya Gahan of Wagadu (Ghana) stressed their role as arbiters of justice, hearing all cases great and small. The kingdom/empire was relatively crime free and had a virtuous citizenry. Like Kemet, the major buildings of key cities were made of stone and the kingdom was laid-out based on twinness with upper and lower divisions via the two cities of Kumbi and Saleh. Mali, unlike Wagadu, which it supplanted, adopted Islam as the religion of the royal family and the administrative bureaucracy. We have uncovered nearly 700,000 manuscripts in the city of Timbuktu, suggesting that Mali was one of the most literate nations in the world. In Mali, as important as the pursuit and accumulation of knowledge, was the emphasis on justice and ethics. Like the Maya Gahans of Wagadu, the Mansas of Mali were concerned with righteousness. Ibn Battuta, the famed Moroccan world-traveled geographer noted that the people of Mali were very intolerant of injustice and peace was prevalent throughout the empire.

Some Western writers attribute Mali’s greatness to the influence of Islam (a mixed cradle culture). These same writers conveniently overlook the tremendous role Islam contributed to Western intellectual and cultural development, particularly during the crusades, the rise of Moorish Spain, and the European Renaissance. Would these writers dare attribute the West’s development to Islam? Such writers are misinformed, however. Mali was not a clone of an Arabic Islamic society. To the contrary, Mali, unlike other Islamic societies of the times, practiced matrilineal descent. Moreover, Battuta noted the difference in the treatment of women in Afrikan as opposed to other Islamic societies. Women were not secluded from men in Islamic Afrika. Additionally, Afrikan women frequented the markets, were integral parts of court life, and consulted freely with powerful men without wearing hijabs. Battuta found the latter objectionable, along with the fact Malian women frequently went about bare-breasted. These differences are evidence that the Afrikan idea of harmony dictated the role of Malian women rather than the misogyny of Islam. Further it suggests Mali was guided by the Afrikan ideal (harmony). Therefore, we must attribute the genius of Mali to its worldview and culture, particularly to the Mande-speaking people, who previously established Wagadu and contemporaneously give us glimpses of brilliance in Dogon and Bambara societies.

Many of the historical documents regarding the Niger Valley high cultures were housed at the Ahmed Baba center which came under threat last week when invading Arabs (now called jihadists), the Ansar Dine, fled the city and began destroying the center as international forces led by France (the European invaders) advanced. Ansar Dine set ablaze a state-of-the-art library that conserved the brittle, camel-hide bound manuscripts of which some date back as far as the 9th century. This library held about 2,000 manuscripts in Arabic and African languages covering subjects ranging from science, astrology and medicine to history, theology, grammar and geography. But there are other collections of manuscripts, some 28,000 of which were transported to the country’s capital, Bamako, when the insurgents first captured Timbuktu last year. The majority of the 700,000 or so manuscripts uncovered in Timbuktu were safely secured in other locations across and around the city.

Protesting against the “destruction and vandalizing of ancient manuscripts kept in the Ahmed Baba Institute of Timbuktu” African intellectuals meeting in Dakar for the Afrika Nko Symposium to discuss “the African Library” said in a statement that “it is an attack against memory, against the human spirit, against African being, and against the whole of humanity.” Many are at a loss as to why the “helpers of the Islamic religion” or “defenders of the faith,” which is what Ansar Dine means, would destroy manuscripts 900 years old--but they shouldn't be. The Ansar Dine's behavior is typical--it is historically the way Arabs have always treated Afrika and her people. Watch the video below for more on the historical relationship between Arabs and Afrikans.